Salvador Zubirán

Salvador Zubirán Anchondo was one of Mexico's most prominent physicians and nutritionists, born in Cusihuiriachi, Chihuahua, in 1898 and died in Mexico City in 1998 at the age of ninety-nine. He took his medical degree at the National University of Mexico and in 1924 and 1925 visited the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, where he received a diploma. Back in Mexico he started the nutrition department of the General Hospital in Mexico City and was then asked to found the National Institute of Nutrition, of which he became first director general on 6 January 1945. He also served as rector of the National Autonomous University of Mexico in the 1940s and was influential in creating University City. He received the National Prize for Arts and Sciences in 1968 and the Belisario Domínguez Medal of Honor in 1986, and the institute now bears his name.